The the third installment of the NextGen ATP Finals in Milan will begin on Tuesday, when eight of the top 21-and-under players in the world put the finishing touches on their 2019 campaigns. Among the participants at this prestigious year-end tournament are Alex de Minaur and Frances Tiafoe, who are the top seeds in their respective round-robin groups.
Saturday’s draw ceremony produced the following:
Group A
Alex de Minaur
Casper Ruud
Miomir Kecmanovic
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Group B
Frances Tiafoe
Ugo Humbert
Mikael Ymer
Jannik Sinner
“It’s a tough draw; both groups are equally good,” said Kecmanovic. “Everybody is playing well and have had the best years of their careers, so it’s going to be tough.”
“The draw speaks for itself,” Ymer commented. “It’s all of the best players our age, so it’s going to be a big challenge.”
All of the best young players is, unfortunately, not entirely accurate. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov would have been the top two seeds in Milan, but Tsitsipas is out due to Nitto ATP Finals qualification and Shapovalov withdrew citing fatigue. The 28th-ranked Canadian recently captured his first career ATP title in Stockholm and he finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the Paris Masters on Sunday.
Group B features players in especially fine form at the moment. Humbert and Sinner both reached the Antwerp semifinals last month and Sinner got there by beating Tiafoe in the quarters. Ymer has won four Challenger titles this year, including two in back-to-back weeks in September.
Picks
Semifinals: De Minaur over Sinner and Humbert over Kecmanovic
Final: De Minaur over Humbert
[polldaddy poll=10449143]
WWW?
De Minaur over Tiafoe
I’d never watched an Alejandro Davidovich Fokina tennis match – but I did see him losing to DEmon this morning, happy to say. I don’t have much opinion on these next gen finals.
Waves to Big Al đź‘‹
Interesting WTA has two year-end final tournaments, which I like better than doing a “next gen” final. The first WTA final features mainly a selection of the top 20 player’s not making the top 8 WTA. They did save a spot to throw in a local wild card in Zhuhai. Anyway Aryna Sabalenka won the Zhuhai tournament. Interestingly Bertens got to play both Zhuhai and the top 8 Shenzhen one because Bertens lost early in Zhuhai and Andreescu pulled out of Shenzhen with an injury.
Money was huge for the winner, Barty (I can’t remember the exact amount) But it was the most ever awarded at a WTA Final — Barty certainly earned it, for her success this year and for her performance in Shenzhen!
Felt sorry for Bianca having to pull out injured in Shenzhen. Really hope she can find the right recipe to stay healthy and compete in more tournaments in 2020! Osaka had to retire injured and leave the tournament too. So best wishes to Naomi as well for the New Year!
Prize money was over $4 mil! I think they were saying it was the most money for any tennis tournament. Maybe people will shut up about women tennis players needing more money? Nahh, doubt it.